


The Seventh Guardian

by SingingCookie



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 15:19:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingCookie/pseuds/SingingCookie
Summary: Sora had ran right past her, sprinting up the last few steps to the final doorway. He threw the door open with such force that the handle banged against the wall and caught the attention of the others in the study. Most of the expressions in the room radiated concern or at the very least apprehension. The only exception was Master Yen Sid.He remained as he always was. Sitting behind his desk, his hands folded in his lap, and his piercing gaze focused right on Sora. He always looked so serious, emotionless even. Usually, it was comforting to know that he would only speak rationally—telling as much of the truth as he knew. Now though, that intense stare only helped to grate on Sora’s nerves.Kairi had joined his side again, asking him what was wrong. Almost as soon as she had asked her question, Yen Sid spoke, “I see you have learned who’s to be our Seventh Guardian.”





	The Seventh Guardian

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like....four years ago....? For SoKai day I think. Which is weird because you can interpret it as platonic or romantic, their interactions in this. Been a while since I've touched it if I'm being honest.

Sora had been screwing up a lot lately.

He thought that maybe after all he had gone through in this past year with the Heartless and Organization and Nobodies, he might get a break in and have a chance to really have things go right for the first time in a long time. Riku had always told him he was too much of an optimist though, and reminded him that with a mouth like his, Sora would always wind up in trouble.

And  _damn it_  he was right.

He had dove into their Mark of Mastery Exam fully confident that both of them were going to pass easily. But as he meandered through the test he could feel it—this little itch at the back of his mind telling him that something was wrong. No matter how much he and Riku fixed the worlds’ problems, the feeling got stronger and stronger without any sort of reason.

And then it all came to a head in The World That Never Was. He learned that he had been led along by Xehanort like an animal for slaughter; and no matter how much he tried to fight it he just fell deeper and deeper into their trap. They knew he would follow his heart, so that was exactly what they planned around. He was lucky the others were able to get him out of there before it was too late.

He could not say it was a shock that he did not make Master after that ordeal. Riku needed and  _deserved_  it more than him. Though, he also could not deny that he was disappointed. Not in Riku making Master, or Yen Sid for not passing him. But in himself for being so over-confident that he had to rely on others to save him. He should have known better.

So he wandered back into the Realm of Sleep for a while to thank his Dream Eaters for helping him so much on the journey. And more importantly to be able to just lose himself for a while. Be able to walk around and show what he actually felt, momentarily take off the happy visage he tried to keep around everyone he cared about. If he got it all out now, the feelings wouldn’t be as hard to fight later.

He may have stayed a little too long though with how Donald and Goofy had reacted when he returned Yen Sid’s Tower. Goofy seemed concerned while the duck squawked up a storm (most of which he admittedly couldn’t understand). It took a bit of explaining but he eventually got out of the scolding (from Goofy anyway), and the three made their way up the tower to Yen Sid’s study.

One thing he really admired about the tower was the mystical air that seemed to perpetuate throughout the walls. There was always this feeling that you’d never know what you’d see next. Heck, one time he got lost in here! Apparently the symbols on certain doors changed every once in a while—it was really annoying because you had to wait for it to change back. The whole tower just seemed to radiate magic and one had to wonder exactly how it came to  _be_  in the first place.

After a while of talking about the Dream Eaters (Sora had yet to be able to tell Donald and Goofy too much about the creatures of the Realm of Sleep prior to this), Sora wondered aloud if there was a reason that the two were so eager for him to be back quickly. Donald’s feathered face had fallen to into a very familiar expression that the teenager could only define as smirking. “What?” His question was ignored by the shorter of his companions, the duck looking away and letting out his knowing laughter. His face scrunched up at the lack of an answer before glancing to his friend on his other side. “C’mon, what is it?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough, a’hyuck!” The spikes atop his head swayed to and fro as his head swiveled between them, his lips pursing together when they simply laughed at him.

“Why can’t ya just tell me now?” He lifted his hands behind his head, fingers interlacing themselves together as he continued to glance between them. When they only continued to chuckle knowingly, he gave large grin, offering, “And y’know, if ya tell me, I’ll still act surprised.” But it seemed his friends were insistent on keeping whatever it was a secret. “Well, fine—see if I tell you the next time Daisy calls on the ship.”

Donald only craned his neck up to observe the Keyblade wielder, musing, “Is that supposed to be a punishment? It’s not a very good one.”

“Sure it is! ‘Cause, then, the next time you do talk ta her she’ll be all—” He was cut off when he heard someone calling his name behind them. The three stopped in sync to look back. On the stairs’ landing, were three all too familiar faces; however, only one of them had really ensnared his attention.

She was only smiling simply at him, the same one she had given when he had told her they had to leave again. He wanted nothing more than to run down the stairs and hug her. Not because it had been too long—but after what had happened recently…well, he would hate to take her for granted. And yet he did not move; his feet were rooted to the spot and he could only stare down at them with her name barely able to pass his lips.

Riku, Kairi, and Axel—no, Lea—(he was having trouble remembering that) made their way up to join them, the Princess of Heart leading the way. She practically ran into him, a greeting she seemed to be reverting to after the last couple of years. He could hear the others say something teasing as they continued on past the two, but he didn’t care enough to bother with them. Eventually Kairi pulled herself away and smiled. “Nice to see you again…ditcher,” she added on, playfully hitting him on the arm.

“Hey,” he held the word out for a while, grabbing where the knuckles had collided with his skin, “I never said ya couldn’t come, ‘member? You were the one who decided y’were gonna stay at home.”

“Well, I thought you would fight for me to,” Kairi said, one side of her lips quirking up the slightest bit. She leaned to one side, her red hair falling out from behind her shoulder as she did. “I know how much you end up missing me~”

He could only laugh, a hand going to rub the back of his head. He was not sure if she knew exactly how true that was—he hoped not. “Aaanyway…” Ah, man, his voice shook a little there. Definitely time to change subjects. His eyes flicked about, searching for something else to say, until he realized they were still halfway up the staircase and had been left behind. He chuckled, gesturing up to the door the others had went through. “Shall we?”

She only giggled, agreeing as they both continued ascending the staircase. “So, Kairi,” Sora began, deciding to ask the question that had entered his mind since seeing her here, “what’re you doin’ here anyway?”

“What, not happy I’m here?” she joked. It was very quickly denied, Sora insisting that he was merely surprised and had not been told she would be coming. “Well, that’s prob’ly ‘cause  _somebody_  left right after finishing the test, according to Riku.”

“It wasn’t right after,” he insisted.

“Right, right, I forgot.” She had lifted a hand to her chin, her forefinger and thumb cradling it as she looked toward him with a grin. “Lea said you guys had a tea party to celebrate too—” Sora quickly steered the conversation away from that topic, reminding her that she had yet to answer his question. Man, just how much had the others  _told_  her in his absence?

“Well, Yen Sid asked Riku to bring me here,” she answered simply. Huh, well, that seemed like an odd request. Riku or himself asking Yen Sid would have made perfect sense but the other way around… “He wants me to start training.”

 _Training_? Master Yen Sid wanted Kairi to…

“…Sora? You okay?”

It took hearing her voice a ways above him to realize that he had stopped walking, staring off at the distant wall as he tried to understand what he had just been told. He knew what training was, but Kairi had play fought with them tons on the island—and even won quite a few times—so it wasn’t as though she didn’t know how to fight. So why…?

“Training…for what?”

She seemed confused, staring at him as though he had questioned something incredibly obvious. “For the fight against the new Organization,” she replied. His hands curled into fists, fingernails digging into the material of his gloves. He opened his mouth only to clamp it shut again as she continued to explain.  “Yen Sid said they need seven Keyblade wielders for the Guardians of Light. And since I can use the Keyblade now—hey, Sora!”

He had ran right past her, sprinting up the last few steps to the final doorway. He threw the door open with such force that the handle banged against the wall and caught the attention of the others in the study. Most of the expressions in the room radiated concern or at the very least apprehension. The only exception was Master Yen Sid.

He remained as he always was. Sitting behind his desk, his hands folded in his lap, and his piercing gaze focused right on Sora. He always looked so serious, emotionless even. Usually, it was comforting to know that he would only speak rationally—telling as much of the truth as he knew. Now though, that intense stare only helped to grate on Sora’s nerves.

Kairi had joined his side again, asking him what was wrong. Almost as soon as she had asked her question, Yen Sid spoke, “I see you have learned who’s to be our Seventh Guardian.”

“She’s  _not_  doin’ this.” His voice was taut, fighting hard to prevent himself from shouting. It would not succeed for too much longer. He could feel it building up inside of him; his own personal volcano about ready to erupt. He stepped further into the room, leaving his friend alone and dumbstruck in the doorway. “She can’t be one a’ the guardians!”

Yen Sid bowed his head, transfixed on the wood of the desk. “We need Seven Keyblade wielders of Light if we are to protect the Princesses of Heart–the source of all light in the worlds,” he explained. His voice remained detached as he continued, “It would only be wise to train those who can already wield the Keyblade rather than attempt to find someone to pass the power unto.”

Gloved palms slammed down on the desk, a prickling sensation running through them as he shouted back, “I don’t care what’d be wiser, she can’t fight with us! I won’t let her!”

“You won’t let me?” Sora didn’t turn around when she spoke, but his head lowered the slightest bit before turning his head to one side. “You won’t  _let me_ ,” the Princess of Heart repeated, purple shoes taking weighty steps as she made her way into the conversation. “Funny, ‘cause, from what I figure. Something like this would be  _my_  decision. Not yours.”

He let out an irritated breath as he stood up straight, turning back to look at her. “Look, Kairi, you just can’t do this, okay?! You’re not—!”

She did not shrink away despite just how huge he was in this moment compared to her. He was still only the slightest bit taller than her, but his temper seemed to take up a large part of the room. Nonetheless, she straightened herself up and folded her arms. “Not what, Sora?” Her voice was firm but nowhere near his volume.

“You’re not—!” He sputtered for a good minute, the blue of his eyes seemed to be searching every inch of the room for the answer to that question. Not  _what_? He had known before, but it was as though his thought process had blown a fuse; his mouth was running without any sort of coherency to it and the harder he tried to think the worse it seemed to get. “You’re not—you’re not strong enough…!” Kairi’s arms tensed up, her face contorting in indignation. That face she made said it all—that was an  _awful_  thing to say. “And I—I just won’t let you do it.”

“Me being able to help shouldn’t have anything to do with you,” she returned, voice wobbling as she frowned up at him. “Now’s really not the time for you to be so selfish.” With that said she turned away, her steps were even heavier than before as she made her way out, hurling the door shut. Sora’s firm expression faded the slightest bit when he could have sworn he heard a sob before the door closed.

“Ooooh, not smart,” he heard Axel—dammit,  _Lea_ —mumble. He was grateful though to hear someone else deal with that smartaleck comment before him.

It took a while for him to really calm down. He seemed to have gotten the shouting out, but he still wasn’t fond of the idea of Kairi joining in this battle. And not for the reason that escaped him. At all. It took his other friends talking him down—mostly telling him that the past few minutes sounded nothing like him or Riku telling him that if he could not think, he definitely should not talk—but thankfully after a while (and some tea Yen Sid had conjured up), he was back to feeling as he normally did.

He apologized to Master Yen Sid for losing his temper, even going as far as to bow when he did so. “No matter.” The teenager slowly straightened up, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked at the old man. Yen Sid had a sliver of a smile, stating, “People tend to do crazy things when worried for those they care about after all.”

“Huh?” Sora’s head cocked toward one side before a hand slapped down on his shoulder. There was Riku smirking knowingly at him, and he could hear some of the others chuckling at Yen Sid’s words as well. Then it hit him what exactly was being implied. His face felt as though it was on fire as he shoved his friend’s hand away. “A-anyway, I hafta go find Kairi…!”

“To kiss and make up?” He glared back at their newest Keyblade wielder who only returned the expression with a grin that bared his teeth. “What, it’s true, ain’t it?”

“To apologize,” he insisted, turning away so Axel—damn, Lea—couldn’t see just how red his face was getting. Whether it was true or not, the thought of that was so  _embarrassing_. Especially when everybody else figured that’s what they would be doing. Geez, who wouldn’t be uncomfortable by that? “I’ll be back later.”

He escaped from the room before any of them could add on any more of their teasing remarks. His back rested on the closed door for a moment, releasing a sigh. Honestly, friends were great but… “Why they gotta tease me all the time?” he wondered aloud. He pondered this for a moment before taking a deep breath and pushing himself up to walk back down the stairs.

Now he had to find Kairi. The tower was large, but he did not think locating her would be too difficult. He had a pretty good idea of where she would have went actually. The hard part was definitely gonna be explaining himself. Explaining exactly why he did not want her to be a Guardian of Light. He knew why he was really against it but…saying it out loud would be tough. Particularly if his mouth disconnected from his brain  _again_.

He just had to focus on the reason. Not what was upsetting Sora but the  _reason_ it was upsetting him. That was the key here. If he concentrated on why it had bothered him, he could—probably—keep a level head while he explained. Maybe. Kingdom Hearts, he hoped so… He was not fond of blowing up in the first place, but the most bothersome part of it was dealing with the consequences afterwards.

After about ten minutes—he had admittedly lost his way once or twice, but come on, the place is huge, okay?—he found the way to the room he had been searching for. It was in the tallest turret of the Mysterious Tower; just like the Wayward Stairs, the ceiling reflected the sky through the roof, and a couple of windows hung on the walls as well. And aside from a single table and chair that resided near the window, the room as whole was fairly bare.

And sure enough, she was in here. She had her back to the door, not sitting, but resting her palms on the table and staring out to the painted horizon. Kairi’s head had cocked more to one side when the door creaked open and then closed behind him. “Took you long enough,” her words were accompanied with a shallow chuckle. “How’d you know where I was?”

He stepped further into the room, but kept his steps slow and weighed. “Aw, y’know…” His reply was going just as slow as his movements, trying to keep his thoughts collected, “Princesses have a habit of goin’ ta the highest room a’ the tallest tower.” Sora came to a stop just as she gave the slightest laugh. He was still a significant distance away, but he felt like it would be best not to crowd her too much. “And I know how much ya like ta look at the sunset too.”

She didn’t respond for a minute, continuing to gaze out the window for a little longer. Eventually though, she lowered her head and her fingers curled up. “You’re an idiot, you know…”

His hand stretched back to scratch at the spikes on the back of his head when he noticed how hurt her voice suddenly became. His dumb comment earlier must have really made a mark on her. “Yeah…I do.”

She straightened up, her fists falling to her sides. “I’m a lot stronger than you guys might think.” She shook her head, turning it so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. He could just barely see her face, but he saw enough to understand what would happen soon. “I’ve been ready to help for a long time,” her voice fell into a certain bitterness as she added, “none of you seems to think I can do this—but I can! But I…” She trailed off, letting out a ragged breath rather than finishing her sentence. A hand rose ferociously wiping her face. “It’s hard to believe in myself when you guys don’t seem to believe in me, y’know?”

While she had spoken, Sora shortened the distance between them. “Kairi…” he said sympathetically, a hand slowly reaching out to touch her shoulder. He was surprised to find her skin very warm, contrasting with the colder demeanor she was holding; he wondered faintly if initiating contact like this was a good idea. “We  _do_  believe in you. I didn’t really mean what I said earlier—it just kinda…popped out.”

“Sure…” She turned her head again, obviously not believing this at all.

“It’s true! I mean…” He sighed as his other hand reached up to scratch his head again. “Honestly, you’re prob’ly one a’ the strongest girls I know. I knew you were strong when ya first came to the islands—ya didn’t know how ta swim, but you were alive when we found ya washed up on the shore! And I knew you were strong when you punched Tidus when he said you couldn’t sword fight with us just ‘cause you were a girl.

“Ya wanted to come with me ta find Riku even when ya didn’t have anything ta fight with! Ya stayed at home even though ya didn’t want to. And ya even tried ta help us fight Xemnas! I  _know_  you’re strong. You’re prob’ly one a’ the strongest  _people_  I know!”

His hand relaxed, losing contact with her skin as he added, “I still don’t like the idea a’ you doin’ this…but it’s not ‘cause I don’t think you’re strong—”

Sora was surprised when she inhaled loudly, taking a few steps away from him as Kairi folded her arms. “Well, it’s still not your decision whether I get to fight or not,” she reminded him. “Yen Sid’s letting me and I  _want_  to. It’s really selfish to think that just ‘cause you don’t like it, I’m just gonna…” The remainder of her sentence faded into oblivion when arms wrapped around her from behind.

His head leaned forward and rested against the back of hers. “You don’t hafta change your mind.” He sounded assuring like usual but there was a hint of something else that was difficult to pinpoint in his tone. Maybe it was just because it was a lot softer? “’Cause that is selfish a’ me…but I don’t want ya ta fight ‘cause I’ve been through it already.”

“Sora…” Warm hands fell upon his arms, and he only held her tighter.

“There’s a lot that goes down, y’know? It sounds great and it is sometimes—but there’s things that happen that are a lot worse than gettin’ hurt out there. And I wouldn’t wish ‘em on anybody. Not my enemies, definitely not the people I care about, and especially not…” The word crumbled in his throat. It was one word. A word he had to have used thousands of times. “Especially not…”  _You._  How come he could not say it?

“Tidus.”

Sora froze for a second, trying to figure out if he had heard that correctly. After a pause his head rose and he said, “Huh?”

She giggled. “Especially not,” Kairi’s voice was laced with lightest laughter as she finished yet again, “Tidus.” She looked over her shoulder to see the small frown of confusion that had settled on his features. She didn’t elaborate any further only closing her eyes in a smile and adding, “Right?”

“What do you…”

Then it dawned on him. The way she had laughed. Her smile. She knew what he wanted to say; she just didn’t want him to be embarrassed. Kairi really did know him well, didn’t she? He laughed as well, agreeing, “Right. Especially not Tidus.”

He was definitely still terrified at the prospect of her joining the fight; but, hey, with the way she could throw a punch, he was sure she would be a pretty kickass teammate.


End file.
